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Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Thanatosian posted:

Reducing car use for its own sake is good. Cars are horribly inefficient in every sense: use of fuel, greenhouse gas, and required infrastructure. I'm not saying we need to eliminate cars entirely, but a lot of people seem to be operating with the premise that cars are not inherently bad, which just isn't true.
I agree that cars are inefficient*, but they're right that just making car travel worse while not also improving other modes would be dumb.

* although not for carrying cargo or longer-distance travel

Cicero fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Oct 17, 2014

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Best Friends
Nov 4, 2011

Mrit posted:

Born in North Seattle, lived here ever since. :clint:

So, why do you look back fondly on the abandoned warehouses of early nineties south lake union? An entire city changed by money, that seems like the weirdest neighborhood to get nostalgic over. There's way more housing there now, a grocery store, much more park space, lots of jobs in walking distance. It's not a bohemian paradise but it never was, at least not since the fifties.

FRINGE
May 23, 2003
title stolen for lf posting

Thanatosian posted:

Reducing car use for its own sake is good. Cars are horribly inefficient in every sense: use of fuel, greenhouse gas, and required infrastructure. I'm not saying we need to eliminate cars entirely, but a lot of people seem to be operating with the premise that cars are not inherently bad, which just isn't true.
They will not be at some point. Electric cars are not going to fade away, and new sources of power will be continually worked on*. Cutting infrastructure for something that absolutely will** expand in use is blind.

* Like: "Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that it thinks it will have an ultra-compact fusion reactor operating in ten years"
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/15/3580379/fusion-power-lockheed-martin-cfr/ (even if Lockheed is pumping for stock value, theres too many heads in that game to ignore it completely, the same for solar efficiency, improved fuel cells, LFTRs, and various other projects).

** Not accounting for various technopunk/collapse hypotheticals (which are also fun).


The individual ability to travel beyond your home and work bubble has changed all of human culture. Raging about that ability just because the combustion engines we all grew up with are loving terrible is short-sighted.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
They'll also be safer when they become self-driving. But the fact that they take up much more space is kind of inherent to the form.

FRINGE
May 23, 2003
title stolen for lf posting

Cicero posted:

They'll also be safer when they become self-driving. But the fact that they take up much more space is kind of inherent to the form.
Future-history documents have already warned us of this nightmare!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrxyr1CjiSM

I guess they can already turn off your car when they want to though.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-03-30-repo-device-car-loans_N.htm

Ditocoaf
Jun 1, 2011

"The individual ability to travel beyond your home and work bubble" is absolutely important and great, but isn't unique to the personal car. Many modern modes of transportation can accomplish that just as well and more efficiently, except in a rural environment. Requiring everyone to purchase an expensive 1.5-ton machine, operate one of those per 1-4 travelers, and keep it stored in an easily-accessible location wherever they go, now THAT'S the definitive feature of the car.

Ditocoaf fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Oct 17, 2014

Ardennes
May 12, 2002
Ultimately the issue is not that cars are efficient or not, they aren't or the goal should be to reduce their use significantly. It is ultimately about timing and eliminating car use as time goes on when it makes sense.

I see the problem with demand based parking is putting the car before the horse especially in cities/neighborhoods where there is only spotty local bus service.

Making car use harder isn't going to actually solve the problem of transportation because it is an actual investment issue we have been neglectful about and it is going to take a while to fix it.

seiferguy
Jun 9, 2005

FLAWED
INTUITION



Toilet Rascal

Thanatosian posted:

Reducing car use for its own sake is good. Cars are horribly inefficient in every sense: use of fuel, greenhouse gas, and required infrastructure. I'm not saying we need to eliminate cars entirely, but a lot of people seem to be operating with the premise that cars are not inherently bad, which just isn't true.

Trust me, if I didn't have to drive to work, I wouldn't. Unfortunately, public transportation at where I live and where I work is not the most efficient. so unless I want to add 3 hours a day to my commute, I'll have to drive.

Ham Equity
Apr 16, 2013

The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.
Grimey Drawer
Note that when I refer to "infrastructure," I don't just mean roads; as was mentioned earlier, parking takes up a huge amount of space, which is frequently empty and unused for a majority of the time. If we had less space taken up by parking, we'd have more space for housing, which would, in turn, make rents cheaper and places easier to find closer to downtown, in addition to increasing density which would make public transit easier and better.

Cars are awful.

seiferguy posted:

Trust me, if I didn't have to drive to work, I wouldn't. Unfortunately, public transportation at where I live and where I work is not the most efficient. so unless I want to add 3 hours a day to my commute, I'll have to drive.
I understand that, but if you were charged more for parking, you'd probably be willing to pay more for rent in order to live closer so you didn't have to drive, which would reduce the number of people looking to live out in the burbs, or at least, as above, increase the density of housing closer to the city, and make it easier to create bus routes for people.

Gerund
Sep 12, 2007

He push a man


Thanatosian posted:

Note that when I refer to "infrastructure," I don't just mean roads; as was mentioned earlier, parking takes up a huge amount of space, which is frequently empty and unused for a majority of the time. If we had less space taken up by parking, we'd have more space for housing, which would, in turn, make rents cheaper and places easier to find closer to downtown, in addition to increasing density which would make public transit easier and better.

Cars are awful.

I understand that, but if you were charged more for parking, you'd probably be willing to pay more for rent in order to live closer so you didn't have to drive, which would reduce the number of people looking to live out in the burbs, or at least, as above, increase the density of housing closer to the city, and make it easier to create bus routes for people.

Your underlined clause is not actually caused by your supposition. Housing density is not a result of parking costs, strangely enough. Building more rooms for people to live in, however, is.

Ardennes
May 12, 2002

Thanatosian posted:

I understand that, but if you were charged more for parking, you'd probably be willing to pay more for rent in order to live closer so you didn't have to drive, which would reduce the number of people looking to live out in the burbs, or at least, as above, increase the density of housing closer to the city, and make it easier to create bus routes for people.

The problem with that thinking is that housing isn't going to be affordable, so the way it works out is people with wealth will have a choice of where to give and people without it will have to make do with low rent suburbs with poor public transportation or pay a bunch for parking.

It goes back to the entire issue of trying to force urbanization by refusing to actually allow the mass government intervention it would take to do it probably. It has been done in other places but usually it required the government to be very hands on (like the Soviets).

computer parts
Nov 18, 2010

PLEASE CLAP

Thanatosian posted:

Note that when I refer to "infrastructure," I don't just mean roads; as was mentioned earlier, parking takes up a huge amount of space, which is frequently empty and unused for a majority of the time. If we had less space taken up by parking, we'd have more space for housing, which would, in turn, make rents cheaper and places easier to find closer to downtown, in addition to increasing density which would make public transit easier and better.


You could probably put in a parking garage which would serve 5 times as many people as the potential apartment it would replace.

FRINGE
May 23, 2003
title stolen for lf posting

Thanatosian posted:

I understand that, but if you were charged more for parking, you'd probably be willing to pay more for rent in order

... to eat less food, have less free time, see less doctors, and hide in your 70 square foot closet when not working since you would be too broke to do anything.

:fixing-the-economy:
:spoiled-person-with-spare-money:
:looking-down-on-poors:

You have a political motivation, that you are trying to justify as a "common sense" solution to housing and economic problems.

edit:

As one easy solution:

computer parts posted:

You could probably put in a parking garage which would serve 5 times as many people as the potential apartment it would replace.

Accretionist
Nov 7, 2012
I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES
I live in an area whose downtown has a shortage of parking. Parking garages would own; gently caress lots and street parking.

(And more old school brick commercial architecture, too, please :smith: )

Ditocoaf
Jun 1, 2011

FRINGE posted:

:spoiled-person-with-spare-money:
:looking-down-on-poors:

I don't see where the hell you're getting this. His entire argument is trying to prove that fewer drivers makes it easier to create public transportation, which is notably cheaper to use than owning a car, if it's available. He may have failed to prove this to you, but that doesn't suddenly morph his entire philosophy into one with the exact opposite goals.

Like I said earlier: I find it hilarious in D&D how often both sides of an argument are "on the side of the poor" and certain that their opponent is supporting the rich/spoiled.

Accretionist posted:

I live in an area whose downtown has a shortage of parking. Parking garages would own; gently caress lots and street parking.
Now HERE is a question I'm interested in. If an area is already inaccessible, because there's neither parking OR public transit, then there isn't even an issue of transitioning from one kind of infrastructure to the other. Why would you choose the pipe dream of a brand-new parking garage over the pipe dream of an easy bus route from your neighborhood to the destination?

Ditocoaf fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Oct 18, 2014

Ham Equity
Apr 16, 2013

The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.
Grimey Drawer

Gerund posted:

Your underlined clause is not actually caused by your supposition. Housing density is not a result of parking costs, strangely enough. Building more rooms for people to live in, however, is.

Fewer parking lots = more room to build housing. Like, this isn't a huge logical leap.

computer parts posted:

You could probably put in a parking garage which would serve 5 times as many people as the potential apartment it would replace.
We have enough problems with traffic coming into Seattle; the last thing we need to do is to create more incentive for people to drive their single-occupant vehicle into the city. We do not have the roads to handle large amounts of additional parking; we don't need more roads to handle more residences. In fact, we would need fewer roads.

FRINGE
May 23, 2003
title stolen for lf posting

Ditocoaf posted:

I don't see where the hell you're getting this. His entire argument is trying to prove that fewer drivers makes it easier to create public transportation, which is notably cheaper to use than owning a car, if it's available. He may have failed to prove this to you, but that doesn't suddenly morph his entire philosophy into one with the exact opposite goals.

Like I said earlier: I find it hilarious in D&D how often both sides of an argument are "on the side of the poor" and certain that their opponent is supporting the rich/spoiled.
I am sure you think its hilarious, since you think its great to drive people out of their homes and jobs now (in a terrible economy) in order to have a fantastical dream of a car-less society (for whatever reason).

"Get rid of parking" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
"Charge people to park where they live" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
"Force people to live in closets or quit their jobs" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".

Those ideas are motivated with a single actual goal: punish car users.

When the door-to-door teleport pods are complete and the roads are empty then you can discuss how they are not needed.

When you want to remove roads and parking from people who are using them daily in order to work you are punishing people (in a severe way) to advance your agenda.

The goals are not supposed to be aesthetic (i hate cars!) or philosophical (the market should decide who can afford to keep their job, or we force-relocate them!), they should be functional.

- less traffic
- less pollution
- less stress
- more free time
- more productivity
- whatever

... and things like that. Most of the "bike-nazi" goals do not accomplish these things very well. They actually make some of them worse, while making unrelated issues worse as well (get rid of your family if they dont fit in your $1200 rental closet, all power to the developers!).

Get the magical transportation tubes working before you try to drive people out of their homes and jobs.

I have lived in almost a dozen cities on the west coast, so far this crap never fixes anything. It increases traffic while improving nothing. Go to war against the money flow instead of your fellow citizens, most of whom are barely getting by as it is.



I already have co-workers making a (combined) three hour commute because they cant afford to park near work. That makes an 11 hour work day and its the exact wrong direction for life to be going. People who dont drive end up losing an entire day for the privilege of seeing a doctor or dentist.

You might find it hilarious, but my goal is for people to have better lives, not "more philosophically pleasing" ones.

Ham Equity
Apr 16, 2013

The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.
Grimey Drawer

FRINGE posted:

I am sure you think its hilarious, since you think its great to drive people out of their homes and jobs now (in a terrible economy) in order to have a fantastical dream of a car-less society (for whatever reason).

"Get rid of parking" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
"Charge people to park where they live" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
"Force people to live in closets or quit their jobs" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".

Those ideas are motivated with a single actual goal: punish car users.

When the door-to-door teleport pods are complete and the roads are empty then you can discuss how they are not needed.

When you want to remove roads and parking from people who are using them daily in order to work you are punishing people (in a severe way) to advance your agenda.

The goals are not supposed to be aesthetic (i hate cars!) or philosophical (the market should decide who can afford to keep their job, or we force-relocate them!), they should be functional.

- less traffic
- less pollution
- less stress
- more free time
- more productivity
- whatever

... and things like that. Most of the "bike-nazi" goals do not accomplish these things very well. They actually make some of them worse, while making unrelated issues worse as well (get rid of your family if they dont fit in your $1200 rental closet, all power to the developers!).

Get the magical transportation tubes working before you try to drive people out of their homes and jobs.

I have lived in almost a dozen cities on the west coast, so far this crap never fixes anything. It increases traffic while improving nothing. Go to war against the money flow instead of your fellow citizens, most of whom are barely getting by as it is.



I already have co-workers making a (combined) three hour commute because they cant afford to park near work. That makes an 11 hour work day and its the exact wrong direction for life to be going. People who dont drive end up losing an entire day for the privilege of seeing a doctor or dentist.

You might find it hilarious, but my goal is for people to have better lives, not "more philosophically pleasing" ones.

Yeah, those loving liberals in this city, worrying about cars and bikes when they haven't done a thing to help with income inequality. Yeah, not a goddamn thing. :bahgawd:

Ham Equity fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Oct 18, 2014

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

FRINGE posted:

I am sure you think its hilarious, since you think its great to drive people out of their homes and jobs now (in a terrible economy) in order to have a fantastical dream of a car-less society (for whatever reason).
Please stop assuming people are arguing in bad faith. Regardless of what you think the actual outcome of these policies would be, clearly nobody here actually intends to hurt poor people, and indeed, many western European cities (even the ones that don't have magical transportation tubes! which is all of them, in case you've forgotten) manage to both have less car dependency and to be better for those with lower incomes relative to the US as far as transportation.

Yes, as Ardennes pointed out, they have decades of infrastructure to support that, but luckily infrastructure in the year 2014 isn't permanently unchanging. At one point even the notoriously bikenazi Netherlands was moving in the direction of car domination, before they changed course again in the 70s. We can steadily move towards smarter development for the future.

quote:

"Get rid of parking" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
"Charge people to park where they live" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
"Force people to live in closets or quit their jobs" has nothing to do with "easier to create public transportation".
Higher density makes it easier to have good public transportation, so yeah, you're completely wrong. I would think that any D&D regular would already be familiar with this.

quote:

When the door-to-door teleport pods are complete and the roads are empty then you can discuss how they are not needed.
I don't know how anyone can say this with a straight face. "Wait until no one is using the roads, THEN you can do the other transportation things."

edit: in case you weren't already aware, building more roads doesn't fix traffic congestion:

quote:

For interstate highways in metropolitan areas we find that VKT [vehicle kilometers traveled] increases one for one with interstate highways, confirming the “fundamental law of highway congestion” suggested by Anthony Downs (1962; 1992). We also uncover suggestive evidence that this law may extend beyond interstate highways to a broad class of major urban roads, a “fundamental law of road congestion”. These results suggest that increased provision of interstate highways and major urban roads is unlikely to relieve congestion of these roads. - See more at: http://perc.org/articles/study-building-roads-cure-congestion-exercise-futility#sthash.nKxg8W5b.dpuf

Cicero fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Oct 18, 2014

FRINGE
May 23, 2003
title stolen for lf posting

Cicero posted:

Please stop assuming people are arguing in bad faith. Regardless of what you think the actual outcome of these policies would be, clearly nobody here actually intends to hurt poor people
Fair enough, but like so many issues, the people that will be ground up in the "any day now" utopian ideas are the ones that cannot rent a tiny $2000 apartment or give up their second job to add hours to the commute for their first job.



Thanatosian posted:

Yeah, those loving liberals in this city, worrying about cars and bikes when they haven't done a thing to help with income inequality. Yeah, not a goddamn thing. :bahgawd:

:bahgawd: Ask someone making $15/hour to move their family into Capitol Hill or Downtown to take advantage of all that beautiful density! :bahgawd:


This is already out of date (2013) but points the right direction:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021673014_rentincreasesxml.html

quote:

That’s why they were so surprised to see what happened last winter with The Lyric, a 234-unit building on Capitol Hill. Within four months of its November opening, the complex near Broadway and East Thomas Street was completely leased out to renters paying a startling average rent of $2,200 a month.

...

The Nolo, next month in Pioneer Square. Its average monthly rent? Also $2,200.

...

In the last two years, the median rent for Seattle studio apartments has gone up $434 in Wallingford, $419 in Capitol Hill, and $306 in Ballard.

...

What’s fueling rent increases most is development itself, said Jonathan Grant, the Tenant Union’s executive director. If almost all new units cater to wealthier tenants, he said, increasing supply is no path to getting rents to go down or even level off.

“The reality is that these units are high-cost, and often these were taken out of affordable-housing stock,” Grant said. “That’s why you see this theory of supply and demand being turned on its head.”

...

Smaller, more expensive units have become commonplace in the densest neighborhoods. The average monthly rent for all unit types on Capitol Hill — $1,395, according to an industry-analysis firm, Apartment Insights — buys about 500 square feet in some buildings.

Those who need a cheaper place to stay in the city can look for in-law units, converted garages or shared housing situations that can be found on websites such as Craigslist. But even those can be expensive: One reader who responded to our online questionnaire said she was renting a converted garage of less than 400 square feet in Phinney for $1,000 a month.

Many have been bypassing those options for microhousing units, often called aPodments. Rent is around $600 for those quickly multiplying units, which come as small as 150 square feet.*

*A freind of mine just moved into an apodment on Cap Hill, they are no longer "around $600", she is paying a little over $1200 for her closet.

All of the "plans" the anti-car people are suggesting here are coming from the PoV similar to an Amazon drone, and not a "normal" persons income.

"Just move closer"
"Just take longer to commute"
"Just ride a bike"
"Just get a job somewhere else"

Gerund
Sep 12, 2007

He push a man


Thanatosian posted:

Fewer parking lots = more room to build housing. Like, this isn't a huge logical leap.

Actually logically, this has nothing to do with building said housing. In fact, it is the exact opposite causation: while more housing would physically mean less room for parking, less parking in no way actually causes there to be more housing.

Even supposing that the SEDU and other regulations reduced the number of parking spaces required, you would have to assume some sort of "invisible hand" would make more housing without the parking associated with it. And even so, the entire reason that the SEDU regulations went into effect was that while said parking was not constructed, the people living in said buildings still owned, parked, and drove cars!

The entire argument is based on an irrational assumption, seeking to come to a self-sufficient solution.

CaptainSarcastic
Jul 6, 2013



Not to derail the argument over cars and parking and housing in your megalopoli, but I just thought I'd mention that I've been doing a little reading, and it looks like Oregon Measure 90 needs to die. Apparently it's a retread of Measure 65 from 2008, and while touted as "opening the primaries" it also limits the general election to only two candidates. Basically, it looks like a way for the major parties and big money to further simplify and control the general elections more than it does anything else.

Okay, you can go back to debating the merits of various urban dystopias now.

Rap Songs From Anime
Aug 15, 2007

CaptainSarcastic posted:

Not to derail the argument over cars and parking and housing in your megalopoli, but I just thought I'd mention that I've been doing a little reading, and it looks like Oregon Measure 90 needs to die. Apparently it's a retread of Measure 65 from 2008, and while touted as "opening the primaries" it also limits the general election to only two candidates. Basically, it looks like a way for the major parties and big money to further simplify and control the general elections more than it does anything else.

Okay, you can go back to debating the merits of various urban dystopias now.

Yeah it's a terrible idea and I'm surprised it hasn't been talked about more. I guess weed stole the show.

Solkanar512
Dec 28, 2006

by the sex ghost
Is it any different than the primary system here in WA?

smg77
Apr 27, 2007

CaptainSarcastic posted:

Not to derail the argument over cars and parking and housing in your megalopoli, but I just thought I'd mention that I've been doing a little reading, and it looks like Oregon Measure 90 needs to die. Apparently it's a retread of Measure 65 from 2008, and while touted as "opening the primaries" it also limits the general election to only two candidates. Basically, it looks like a way for the major parties and big money to further simplify and control the general elections more than it does anything else.

Okay, you can go back to debating the merits of various urban dystopias now.

Both the Republican and Democratic state parties have come out against it. The only people I've seen who are for it are people from WFP who are deluded enough to think that it would increase turnout in primary elections.

Peztopiary
Mar 16, 2009

by exmarx

Cicero posted:

It's a good thing nobody has suggested getting rid of all cars overnight then! A closer analogy would be if someone suggested slowly reducing the Senate's power and influence while simultaneously fixing the House.

You should come up with analogy that isn't terrible politics. The Senate is fine as is. Every state gets two senators, any new states get two senators. It ensures that no matter how barren a wasteland you live in (looking at you Wyoming) you get the same vote as California/New York. It's the sober adult part of Congress. We should just massively expand the House, call it a day. Go back to the original proportions of Representatives. I mean really it's the perfect analogy for your car plan, but I'm assuming you didn't mean it that way.

oxbrain
Aug 18, 2005

Put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip and come on up to the mothership.
How should I vote on the non-binding and completely misleading and meaningless advisory votes in WA? :ohdear:

There's no spot for a write-in "gently caress Tim Eyman" vote.

Ham Equity
Apr 16, 2013

The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.
Grimey Drawer

oxbrain posted:

How should I vote on the non-binding and completely misleading and meaningless advisory votes in WA? :ohdear:

There's no spot for a write-in "gently caress Tim Eyman" vote.

"Yes" is the closest thing to "gently caress Tim Eyman."

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Peztopiary posted:

You should come up with analogy that isn't terrible politics. The Senate is fine as is. Every state gets two senators, any new states get two senators. It ensures that no matter how barren a wasteland you live in (looking at you Wyoming) you get the same vote as California/New York. It's the sober adult part of Congress. We should just massively expand the House, call it a day. Go back to the original proportions of Representatives. I mean really it's the perfect analogy for your car plan, but I'm assuming you didn't mean it that way.

These are terrible ideas fyi. A democracy should not be handing out votes based on land ownership. Where you live has nothing to do with how much representation one should get, anymore than what skin color you have or what your gender is. The fact that the 580,000 citizens of Wyoming get treated as being equivalent to the 38,300,000 citizens of California (66 times greater) is a patent failure in democratic government - not something to be proud of as "sober and adult". Here in Oregon it'd be the equivalent of treating the people who live in Lake County (Lakeview) as equivalent to the people who live in Multnomah County (Portland); in Washington it'd be the equivalent of treating the people who live in King County (Seattle) as being equivalent to the people who live in Jefferson County (Port Townsend). There's nothing democratic about it, as it fundamentally compromises the voting rights of the vast majority of people in the interests of a handful of elites.

The completely unrepresentative Senate leads to all sorts of issues with corruption and pork-barrel funding, and disenfranchises Americans who don't get special representation. It's one of the last bastions of preferential political treatment for conservative whites, and it should be done away with as speedily as its cousin the Three-Fifths Compromise. The system, as it exists, is an affront to democracy. Even the European Union weights its council votes by population, and that involves entirely separate nations. The US Senate should be fundamentally reformed in the interest of the basic principles of egalitarian self-governance.

CaptainSarcastic posted:

Not to derail the argument over cars and parking and housing in your megalopoli, but I just thought I'd mention that I've been doing a little reading, and it looks like Oregon Measure 90 needs to die. Apparently it's a retread of Measure 65 from 2008, and while touted as "opening the primaries" it also limits the general election to only two candidates. Basically, it looks like a way for the major parties and big money to further simplify and control the general elections more than it does anything else.

Agreed on all points. Measure 90 is awful and effectively does away with primaries entirely and replaces them with a single two-tiered election. It does worse than nothing for third parties, and the only reason conservatives are backing it is because it kills voter participation. I think it's amazing that such a fundamental change in how we vote isn't getting more discussion in our news media. Here in Corvallis we've talked way more about implementing parking zones than we have about totally altering how we vote. I think that people just don't know what to make of it, and are being intentionally confused by the misappropriation of the term "open primary".

Kaal fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Oct 18, 2014

Peztopiary
Mar 16, 2009

by exmarx
Good thing we're not a democracy then. We have a bicameral Congress for a reason. It's so Idaho as a chunk of land has a say in what its future is. In your version it wouldn't. As an Idahoan, I'm pretty sure I know less about Yosemite than I do about the Clearwater. Likewise for my senators.

Peztopiary fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Oct 18, 2014

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Peztopiary posted:

Good thing we're not a democracy then. We have a bicameral Congress for a reason. It's so Idaho as a chunk of land has a say in what its future is. In your version it wouldn't. As an Idahoan, I'm pretty sure I know less about Yosemite than I do about the Clearwater. Likewise for my senators.

We're a democratic republic, but that has nothing to do with handing out votes to "chunks of land". The "republic" element means that we elect leaders rather than having every law and ordinance be subject to public vote (i.e. an initiative). Idahoans should have a say in what their future is, and that say should be just the same as everyone else and should be vested in democratic principles. You may know less about Yosemite than you do about Clearwater, but understand that in the California/Wyoming equivalency it'd be like giving the Ranger staff at the Yosemite Main Visitor Center (~130 people) a vote equal to that of your entire county of Clearwater (8,500 people). It'd also mean that people who wanted to influence a vote would only have to focus on a handful of citizens, allowing them to cheaply buy an election while ignoring the vast majority of people. Giving 130 people special representation wouldn't be fair to you, nor the other 1.6 million citizens of Idaho, and it would fundamentally betray the democratic principles that the country is founded on. It's one thing to give the Rangers their due representation in government - it's another thing entirely to set them up as a fiefdom unto themselves, and what's more to limit the ability of anyone else (like the Rangers in the Yosemite Museum, or the Wilderness Center, or the Nature Center, or you know, non-Rangers) in emulating them.

Also, I know that your concepts about rationalizing the land-based Senate probably come from primary education, because I remember getting the same facile explanations about how "the US is not a democracy" and "a balance between small states and big states" and "equality in the bicameral legislature". But I encourage you to think critically about them, because those ideas are really limited and are intended to butter over the inherent problems of our system. It doesn't make sense and it isn't fair or just.

And what's more, these problems are relatively recent. When the country was first created we widely used the territorial system to account for areas without significant populations. As such, the widest population disparity between states for the first couple hundred years was typically a factor of 10. Population shifts from immigration, industrialisation, and urbanization changed all that. Our current widest disparity is 66, and that's mirrored over and over with a handful of states holding the great majority of the population. We've also slowed to a stop our adoption of new states, or breaking apart existing states, which was another mechanic for ensuring more equal representation in the Senate. Even the acceptance of Puerto Rico as a state, which would be the 29th largest state by population and larger than both Delaware and Rhode Island by geographic size, continues to be an extremely grudging process (which is abhorrent, since we allow 3.6 million Americans to be disenfranchised essentially because they'd vote Democratic). The idea of splitting up larger states like California, even in a purely legalistic fashion, is fiercely opposed. This has catalysed the existing problems of an inherently undemocratic system, which itself is a direct holdover from the landed gentry and pocket boroughs of the British House of Lords during the latter monarchy.

Fun Fact: If we were to readopt the minimum population threshold for states, allowing for population inflation, we'd turn 10 states back into territories. Idaho would barely make the cut-off and become the smallest populated state. Conversely, Metropolitan Los Angeles alone could become at least 9 states, never mind the rest of California.

Kaal fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Oct 18, 2014

Peztopiary
Mar 16, 2009

by exmarx
The Founding Fathers were not super big fans of democracy though. 3/5ths and only white male land owners voting etc. Not that I think either of those things is anything less than terrible. The democratic principles upon which this country was founded are pretty terrible. It's largely been through the courts and the legislatures that we've expanded the franchise. Why should Idaho give up its Constitutional advantages to advance some notion of fairness though? What's in it for them? I actually think the Senate is valuable as a deliberative body, or at least was until recently. Expand the House and keep the Senate. Seems easier than trying to get rid of the Senate. I understand your argument about having to bribe fewer people, but I think that's a flaw with the people being elected and not the system.

FRINGE
May 23, 2003
title stolen for lf posting

Peztopiary posted:

Expand the House and keep the Senate.
This accomplishes nothing.

Peztopiary posted:

I understand your argument about having to bribe fewer people
You dont understand it or you would not have said "Expand the House and keep the Senate".

Peztopiary posted:

Why should Idaho give up its Constitutional advantages to advance some notion of fairness though?

"I mean sure, we could let women vote, but wouldnt that lessen my advantage as a man? Same thing with the coloreds. Why dilute my bloated power for 'fairness'?"

Peztopiary
Mar 16, 2009

by exmarx
Yes Idaho is clearly oppressing the Californians. That's why they keep moving up here.

Ditocoaf
Jun 1, 2011

Peztopiary posted:

Yes Idaho is clearly oppressing the Californians. That's why they keep moving up here.

Hey, your vote counts more if you move to Idaho.

oxbrain
Aug 18, 2005

Put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip and come on up to the mothership.
Inadequate compensation for having to live in Idaho.

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Ditocoaf posted:

Hey, your vote counts more if you move to Idaho.

Specifically 24 times more. Want to meet the Idaho Senate candidate? Come right up and chat with him for five minutes. In California you'd get only 12.5 seconds.

Seems fair.

Kaal fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Oct 18, 2014

CaptainSarcastic
Jul 6, 2013



Peztopiary posted:

Yes Idaho is clearly oppressing the Californians. That's why they keep moving up here.

I know this isn't really fair, but I tend to have a hard time remembering that Idaho is generally thought of as being in the Pacific Northwest.

As a native Oregonian, I tend to feel a kinship with Washington and Northern California, but not so much Idaho.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

CaptainSarcastic posted:

I know this isn't really fair, but I tend to have a hard time remembering that Idaho is generally thought of as being in the Pacific Northwest.

As a native Oregonian, I tend to feel a kinship with Washington and Northern California, but not so much Idaho.

That's because you lack the blood of Jesus.

Error 404 fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Oct 18, 2014

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CaptainSarcastic
Jul 6, 2013



Error 404 posted:

That's because you lack the blood of Jesus.

What happens in the SJLAB thread stays in the SJLAB thread.

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